


Close Your Eyes And Rest

by Snowy_Snowflake



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, D.I.C.E. - Freeform, Exhaustion, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kokichi just wants to help everyone, M/M, Overworking, Pigeons., Shuichi just wants him to be healthy, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepy Cuddles, The D.I.C.E. members just want Kokichi to relax for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 21:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16542572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowy_Snowflake/pseuds/Snowy_Snowflake
Summary: When a time limit of helping catch several criminals planning on lighting an orphanage on fire comes up, Kokichi sacrifices his own health for the sake of trying to find evidence to let the detectives catch them. Shuichi on the other hand, will make sure he takes care of himself.





	Close Your Eyes And Rest

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, I'm back! (Surprise!) Please don't yell at me too much ^^" Hope you enjoy!

Kokichi had been awake for a whole week. No sleeping, no naps, no form of closing his eyes except for blinking. Yes, a full week without sleeping once. The lack of sleep was really taking a toll on the little leader, but he refused to rest. Not when he was trying to come up with a plan to stop a new gang of criminals from burning down an orphanage on Thanksgiving. 

He knew he couldn’t let any officials or detectives know of what they were planning because 1. They would question how he knew, and 2. They would need a search warrant to enter the house to find the plans of burning the orphanage down. Problem was, it’s hard to get a search warrant with having no evidence to even try to base the warrant off of. 

They needed evidence but the gangs’ base was heavily guarded so they couldn’t just sneak in and steal some stuff, no, they needed a plan. That’s why Kokichi was pertinaciously working every day and night to form a plan to break in and steal some type of evidence from the criminals’ base...Which was why he was standing in the meeting room with a whiteboard behind him, sharing another plan he thought of with his subordinates. 

“Ok...this plan...should work…the others may not have been good enough...but this one’s going to work...” Kokichi pointed to the whiteboard with unfinished scribbles, arrows, and other nonsense strewn about. He turned to them sluggishly, a tired but confident smile on his face. 

The D.I.C.E members didn’t think it was possible, but he looked even worse than yesterday. His hair was disheveled, his clothes were wrinkled, his movements and words were slow, his skin was an even sicklier shade of pale, and the bags under his eyes were extremely dark and prominent. It seemed that with every failed plan, he overworked himself twice as hard with the next one. The hat on his head was tilted to the side a bit, and the black cape he wore seemed to hold him down, as if the light fabric felt like it was made out of bricks. 

Their hearts cracked at the sight of their powerful, “evil,” leader looking so...tired. Sideswipe, being the logical and level-headed one, spoke up. “Leader, I’m not sure you noticed this but uh...the plan looks a little unfinished and there’s a lot of scribbles and stray marks. Not to mention that the plan involves us befriending pigeons and making them fly into their base to steal evidence.” He flicked the strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes, a gentle concern could be seen. 

Kokichi tilted his head slightly to the side, giving the whiteboard another look. “Aww, I don’t think it’s _that_ bad! pigeons _are_ really cute! It may not work for the plan but good job on trying Leader!” A girl with short, dirty blonde hair in two small pigtails jumped up and clapped. 

“Mira you’re too optimistic...last time you found a pigeon it started chasing after you with the intent of pecking you...but you insisted that it was playing tag.” Pigtails quietly brought up, playing with her brown hair. 

“Ahaha, it was really good at being it! I think the little birdy tagged me about 10 times!” Mira smiled ecstatically. 

“Oddly enough, the pigeon wasn’t the bird-brain.” Veera teased, brushing her light pinkish hair with her hands. 

“Hey—!” 

“Anyways!” Ace interrupted, looking towards Kokichi. “Like Mira said, it was a good...attempt, but maybe we should take a break— or nap— before we start thinking of another plan again.” Ace suggested, watching Kokichi with worry as he swayed from side to side. 

Once the words reach Kokichi’s head, he stared at them, eyes foggy and glazed over before a look of confusion and anger took over him. “But they’re...they’re going to...to strike on the...31st of November...when everyone’s….together for Thanksgiving...so we need to catch them...before then! Even though...it’s the...the 6th of November and...we have 26 days counting today...to catch them...we can’t take a break…they can always attack earlier! You know...what? I’ll think of a...a new plan! Plan W version 3 should...work...yeah, I’ll start working on that…?” Kokichi paused, trying to remember what he was saying or about to say next. 

While he was trying to think, all of the D.I.C.E members gave him a pitying look, they all knew that he was just too tired to realize that there was no 31st of November, _and_ that Thanksgiving wasn’t on the 31st but the 22nd, _and_ that Kokichi went through the alphabet twice going on three times with a bunch of failed plans. 

Kokichi suddenly remembered what it was he forgot and shook his head before speaking in a desperate voice. “We need to...we need to find some way to...to find evidence! We need to...stop them before it’s too...too late—” While moving, Kokichi’s leg got in the way of his other foot, making him trip and fall. Luckily, Mira reacted fast and caught him before he hit the ground. 

He was dazed and disoriented for a good 15 seconds, causing the members to quickly stand and walk over to him. Once he got a somewhat clear grip of the things around him he smiled, attempting to recover. “Nee-heehee...just making sure...sure you were paying attention...you passed…!” Kokichi laughed his same, teasing laugh, trying to get them off his trail but it wasn’t working. 

He saw Mira look up to Sideswipe and Ace, who both looked at each other and nodded in return. Ace and Veera walked away, leaving Mira to help him stand up. Once he was on his feet, she looked at the clock, faking a shocked expression. “Wow! Would you look at the time, Leader? It’s time for that mandatory tea break!” She shouted happily, guiding him over to the table. 

“What…? It...is? I thought we...thought we had the tea break...30 minutes ago…?” Kokichi rubbed his eyes, trying to soothe the headache that was blossoming. 

“Are you sure, Leader? We haven’t had a break yet, maybe you’re just tired and thought we had the tea break 30 minutes ago.” Sideswipe reasoned, giving him a pillow. 

“Yeah! Now you just get comfortable, Veera and Ace already made the tea!” Mira placed a blanket around him, then slipped back into the kitchen while the others stayed with a confused Kokichi. “Hey, Ace, Veera, did you slip the sleeping powder into his drink?” She asked, nervousness in her voice. 

“Already done, does he believe it’s actually the mandatory tea break?” Ace questioned, his distressed voice reflected her own. 

“Yeah...he’s so tired he doesn’t even realize we had that break several hours ago...I wish he’d just sleep already.” Mira pouted as she crossed her arms. 

“You know our Leader...even though he won’t admit it, he’s a good guy and cares about everyone so much...maybe too much with the way he’s willing to sacrifice his own health just like that.” Ace added, a fond smile taking place on his face as he reminisced on some old memories. 

“Yeah, yeah, get your head out of the clouds, even though you’re pretty high up there, and focus. The sooner he falls asleep the better.” Veera smirked, grabbing the tea. 

“Operation: _Help Kokichi Sleep_ is a go!” Mira skipped out the doors, bubbling with excitement. 

“Since when did we decide that!?” Veera followed her with Ace trailing behind, shaking his head in exasperation. 

They arrived at the table shortly afterwards, finding Kokichi looking really out of it. They all wished he would just sleep already. “Ta-da! The tea’s ready!” Mira moved out of the way to let Veera set down the tea tray. 

“Aren’t any...of you going to...to...have a tea...break?” Kokichi glanced upwards at all of them, shaky hands coming to rest around the mug. 

“I think we’re all fine, we had some tea a little while ago.” Grin explained, his blonde spiky hair bouncing up and down with a nod of his head. 

“Drink your tea and relax, you’ll feel better afterwards.” Sideswipe encouraged. 

“Alright…then...” Kokichi lifted the mug up to his lips while the members looked at Kokichi in anticipation. Suddenly, _...Beep! Beep! Incoming call! Beep! Beep!_ Kokichi jumped upwards and out of his chair, slamming the mug back down on the table in terror. Everyone sighed in anger as Kokichi pulled out his phone to check who was calling. _ << Shuichi <3 is calling you. Accept / Decline >> _ “Looks like I...need to run...super important Supreme Leader business to...take care of…!” Without looking back, Kokichi weakly stood up, using the table to balance himself as he walked out of the room. 

When he was out of earshot, everyone groaned. “So close…” Pigtails whispered. Choruses of agreement broke out as well as some annoyed sighs. 

“Well, what do we do now? He doesn’t listen to us when we ask him to sleep, and our plan failed. What’s left?” Twister asked, annoyance leaking into his voice. 

“There's only one thing left to do then...We’re going to ask the very person that just stopped us to help him.” Ace decided determinedly. 

“And how do we do that exactly? In case you haven’t noticed, we have no way of contacting Shuichi except for Kokichi’s phone. And he always has that on him.” Shad, the boy with short black hair, frowned. 

“Oh Shad, always such a pessimist! We’ll work out the details later~ For now operation: _Help Kokichi Sleep 2.0_ is a go!” Mira exclaimed, earning several sighs. 

Ace clapped his hands, bringing them together. “Ok. Here’s the plan: Veera, Pigtails, Twister, Shad, Sideswipe, Whisper, Grin, and I are going to distract Kokichi while Mira grabs his phone. Once the signals given, we’ll all retreat to the lounge room where we’ll call Shuichi. Once we do that we’ll return the phone back to him like nothing ever happened. While we wait, Sideswipe, Pigtails, and I will follow Kokichi around to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed with the way he stumbles and falls around. Mira and Veera, the two of you guard the entrance to let Shuichi in, then the rest is up to him.” Ace informed, already walking out the doors to initiate the plan. 

“This is so exciting! I love it when we go on missions!” Mira skipped behind him, the others following her. 

* * *

Once they found Kokichi, he was undeniably worse off than the last time. Kokichi’s weight was leaning entirely on the wall as he stumbled along, most likely heading to his room to work on yet _another_ plan. “Now.” Ace whispered to the group, walking out into the hall.

“Kokichi! We need you for a sec!” Sideswipe yelled. 

“AH!” Kokichi jumped and turned around, eyes wide in panic before he realized who it was. “Y-yes? Is something wrong?” Kokichi asked, forcing himself to fake a smile and stand up straight. 

“Well, we just needed to ask you something about the attack the criminals are planning—” The D.I.C.E members began talking all at once, effectively gaining his attention. Meanwhile, Mira had snuck out from behind the corner and stealthily slipped her hand into his pocket, retrieving the phone. He was too out of it to even register the feeling of someone behind him. Mira gave them a thumbs up, quietly sneaking back to her spot. 

“—Oh! You know what? I think we all understand now! Thank you Leader!” Twister smiled. 

Kokichi stood staring at him for a bit before finally registering his words. “...Yeah...you’re welcome…” Kokichi yawned, rubbing his eyes. 

Ace nudged Grin, whispering something in his ear. “Change of plans, I’m staying with him to make sure he doesn’t go back to his room to work.” 

“Good idea, we’ll try to get Shuichi as soon as possible.” Grin whispered back, signaling for the others to leave. 

“Good luck.” He mouthed, watching the members walk away. 

* * *

“Phase 1 is a success. Now all we have to do is figure out his password…” Shad frowned, knowing this task would be the hardest. 

“Any ideas…?” Pigtails questioned. 

“Hmm...do you think his password has something to do with his boyfriend? Like...his birthday or name?” Sideswipe thought aloud. 

“That would be so cute! Does he have any nicknames for him?” Mira bounced up and down, looking at the members expectantly. 

“Let’s see...maybe just try ‘Shuichi’?” Whisper suggested. 

“Hmm...nope, didn’t work.” 

“Shuichi’s birthday? D.I.C.E.?” Shad piped up. 

“No, and no.” 

Pigtails seemed to be lost in thought, her quiet demeanor suddenly changed when she yelled, “SHUMAI! I hear him call Shuichi ‘Shumai’ a lot! That’s probably it!” Everyone looked at her in shock, never hearing her yell before. It seemed Kokichi’s condition was really getting to her as well. 

“...And we’re in!” Mira smiled with joy. 

“His password’s Shumai...he really is a lovesick puppy, isn’t he?” Veera sighed, but she was smiling nonetheless. Mira selected Shuichi’s contact and pressed call, the members gathered around the phone anxiously. 

It didn’t even ring once until they heard the line pick up, catching a frantic sounding voice. “Kokichi! I’m getting worried, you’re sounding more exhausted everyday and I haven’t seen you for a week, I know you said that everything’s “fine” and that I’m not allowed to come to your headquarters right now but—” 

“Woah, woah woah, slow down there Shuichi!” Mira interrupted him. 

They could hear him freeze and stutter from the other end. “...M-Mira!? Wh-what are you doing with Kokichi’s ph-phone?” Shuichi stumbled through his words with embarrassment, realizing they heard his small rant. 

“Well you see, Kokichi’s been awake for 7 days straight—” Sideswipe began. 

“7 DAYS!?” Shuichi yelled in shock, making Sideswipe cringe since he was right next to the speaker. 

“Yes, 7 days without any sleep whatsoever. We tried to ask him to go to sleep, but that didn’t work. We then put a sleeping medicine in his tea but he didn’t drink it. The only option left is you. So please...convince him to get some rest. He’s been overworking himself and he’s really out of it.” Sideswipe pleaded while rubbing his ears, the other members mumbled small agreements. 

“I’m on my way now. Thank you for letting me know.” Shuichi hung up, voice overwhelmingly concerned and uncharacteristically serious. 

The D.I.C.E. members all breathed a sigh of relief, Kokichi was finally going to get the rest he needed. “Phase 2 is done, now onto phase 3.” Twister, with his blonde hair that stuck up as if he were struck by lighting, stood up, the others followed. 

“Now we have to return the phone and wait...I hope Shuichi knows what he’s doing.” Whisper frowned, not liking the idea of waiting or failing such an important mission. 

“Don’t worry, we should have faith in Shuichi...he really cares about him, he’ll make sure he sleeps.” Pigtails gently reassured him. 

They began walking back to where they first ran into Kokichi, surprised to see him and Ace still there. Kokichi was leaning against the wall, practically hugging it to stand up. Ace was questioning him about many different things, effectively preventing him from going back to his room to work. When he caught their eyes he turned Kokichi around, making him stumble a bit. 

“Do you think that wall needs a picture? Or some random piece of artwork? It looks kind of plain from this angle.” Ace pointed towards the white wall several feet in front of them. 

“Ace...why are you...asking me about...this?” Kokichi inquired in a half-whimper half-whine. 

At this point, Sideswipe had snuck the phone back into his pocket without Kokichi noticing, signaling for Ace to move on to phase 4 as he and Pigtails headed for the meeting room while Mira and Veera fled to the entrance. The others broke away, keeping watch on Kokichi from the shadows. 

“On second thought, I like how the wall looks, nothing needs to be changed.” Ace nodded to himself. 

“...” Kokichi gave him a tired, exasperated look as if asking, ‘anything else?’ “Ok then...I’m going to think...of another...another plan...bye—” 

“Wait! We should go to the meeting room, there’s some plans Sideswipe, Pigtails and I want to go over with you. We should hurry in case they’re already there!” Ace walked ahead of him, pretending he didn’t see Kokichi’s pained face as he forced himself to walk ahead to follow him. 

* * *

Shuichi finally arrived at the door to the base. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but from the inside it was rather large and intricate. The concrete building that sat in the middle of nowhere loomed over him, but he wasn’t scared about that, no, he was scared because Kokichi apparently didn’t sleep for 7 whole days and was probably a complete mess right now. 

With newfound determination and confidence, Shuichi walked into the building without knocking, quickly moving to the side as a pie flew past the spot where his head was. Shuichi chuckled, reminiscing on the first time Kokichi brought him to their base. When the pie first hit him, Kokichi began laughing like crazy, as if he just saw the funniest thing in the world. And yes, it probably was. But it was even better when Shuichi threw some of the whip cream at him, prompting an all out pie fight. He found himself smiling fondly at the memory. 

“Shuichi!” Someone suddenly shouted as he was tackled to the ground. “You’re back! We all missed you so much!” Mira yelled as she hugged him tightly. Shuichi was unfortunately used to this, with Kokichi always surprise hugging him and with Mira hug tackling everyone she sees as her greeting. 

“Geez Mira, stop tackling everyone you see.” Veera stepped out, crossing her arms. 

“A-ah, hello Mira, hello Veera.” Shuichi greeted them sheepishly, looking around for Kokichi. 

“Shuichi! You're finally back! It’s so nice seeing you again! Kokichi loves to talk about you, you know?” Mira explained obliviously, seeing Shuichi’s face heat up a bright red. 

“Come on, Mira. Get off of Shuichi, we have work to do.” Veera huffed. 

“Oh! Right!” Mira got off of him, holding out her hand for him to take. “Let’s save Kokichi, shall we?” Mira said determinedly. 

“Yes, but we have to hurry.” Shuichi grinned and took her hand, standing up with the persistent blush still on his face. With that, Veera and Mira guided him to the meeting room, briefing him on the details of what was happening in the past week. 

* * *

“No...we have to go...that way...the front door...front door...door…” Kokichi’s head hit the table but shot right back up again. “Front doors...guarded...the window isn’t…” He finished lamely. 

“Ooooh, I understand now, and what about the pigeons?” Sideswipe tried to ask with a straight face, unwillingly letting a small twitch at the corners of his mouth pop up. 

“...Ignore the pigeons...can I go...now?” Kokichi whined, resting his head on the table. 

“Not yet, I have another question—” Pigtails stopped when she saw the door behind him open quietly. “But I can save that for another time.” She finished, smiling warmly. 

“Finally...now I can...I can work on another...plan…” Kokichi got up, practically dragging his feet across the floor to reach the door. Since he didn’t have the strength to hold his head up he looked down, causing him to bump into a soft, black fabric. “...Sorry…” Kokichi was about to walk past the figure but it wrapped two hands around him, pulling him close. 

“You look so tired...why haven’t you been sleeping?” Kokichi froze. He knew that voice, and that fabric...he was in deep trouble. He slowly and lazily looked up, coming face to face with Shuichi. 

“Nee-heehee...I didn’t expect...you to come...here! Can’t stay...away from someone as...amazing as me…!” Kokichi laughed uneasily. Shuichi frowned in sorrow, hugging him tightly. Kokichi hugged him back, his presence was enough to make him feel weightless and sleepy. 

“I’m getting you to bed, we’ll talk about this later.” Shuichi's voice became really gentle and calming. Without waiting for his reply, he picked Kokichi up bridal style, walking out the room. The D.I.C.E. members sighed in relief as they saw the two leave. 

“No! Wait...I can’t...sleep...not now...not yet, I need to...need to…” Kokichi gripped onto his back in desperation, trying to make him let go. 

“Hush, no more. Stop talking and relax.” His grip was weak and barely there, that worried him. 

Kokichi of course, disobeyed him. “But we...we need to save them from...from the other group...planning to...burn the orphanage down…I need to...help...need to save...” Kokichi struggled to get out of his grip, but was too frail to do so. 

“Shh, shhh, we will. But right now I need to save _you._ ” Shuichi turned the corner, Kokichi’s room was at the end of the hallway. He was almost there. 

“No...I refuse to sleep...until I find...find the evidence...and come up with...with a plan…” Kokichi whimpered, using his remaining strength to spit out those words. Shuichi sighed, of course Kokichi was being difficult. Luckily, he already had an idea in mind to get him to sleep. 

“Listen, if you’re going to be this difficult about sleeping then we’re going to play a game, if I win then you have to sleep for at least 14 hours, then you have to eat and take it easy. Then after we get this whole situation worked out you’re going to have a day off where you can relax and calm down, ok?” Shuichi offered, opening the door to Kokichi’s room. 

“And if...I win I’m going to...stay awake until we succeed...at the mission...and you need to...buy me Grape Panta…” Kokichi didn’t resist when Shuichi sat him down on his bed, ruffling his hair a bit. 

“Fine. But either way I’ll be making sure you take care of your health more afterwards, you’re really important to me and I don’t want you to be sick or uncomfortable.” Shuichi began tidying up the room as Kokichi watched, unable to stand anymore. Stacking all the papers into a neat pile on his desk, Shuichi walked over to him and sat down on the bed next to him, bringing a hand to wrap around his shoulder to bring him close. Kokichi leaned into his chest and nuzzled him, clearly exhausted. 

“*Yawn* You seem...confident that...you’re going to win…but what’s the game…?” Kokichi looked up at him and chuckled despite his tiredness. 

“You’ll see.” Shuichi carefully took off his hat and cape, neatly folding it and tucking it away in his drawer. “Put your pajamas on.” Shuichi instructed to which Kokichi sluggishly complied. “Good, now…” Shuichi gently pushed him down so that he was laying on his back. He then began bundling him up in soft, fuzzy covers. Internally beaming when Kokichi leaned into his touch. Once he was done he laid down next to him, wrapping his arms around Kokichi's all-too small and thin body. 

“What’s the…*Yawn* game…that I’m totally...going to win at?” Kokichi looked at him with an unfocused expression, eyes fluttering shut every few seconds. 

“Here are the rules, you have to close your eyes for 10 seconds. If you don’t fall asleep before then, you win. But if you fall asleep I win.” Shuichi explained simply. 

“That’s...it?” Kokichi looked shocked, not expecting the game to be that easy. 

“It’ll be harder than you think...now, ready to start?” 

“This is...too easy…” Kokichi mumbled, closing his eyes. 

“1…” Kokichi’s eyes began to grow heavy. 

“2…” His mind began slowing down. 

“3…” He felt cozy and warm in his beloved’s arms and soft blankets. 

“4…” His breathing began to even out. 

“5…” He couldn’t open his eyes even if he wanted to. 

“6…” He felt hands begin to stroke his back in soothing motions and patterns. 

“7…” Kokichi truly felt the weight of the past several sleepless nights weigh on him. 

“8…” The world began slipping away as Kokichi succumbed to the darkness. 

“9…” Kokichi lost, but that was fine. 

“...Sweet dreams.” Shuichi felt Kokichi go limp, resting peacefully against his chest. “...We’ll work on your health habits later. For now, just sleep.” Shuichi, feeling tired himself from the days’ events, easily fell asleep next to him, pretending not to hear the door creak open and overhearing hushed “aww’s” and one, “Those two are so cute!!” as the door closed again. 

* * *

2 days went by and Kokichi finally made a plan that actually made sense. (With the help of Shuichi and D.I.C.E. of course) It worked without anything going wrong—well, Mira was chased by 4 pigeons but that successfully distracted the guards like she was originally supposed to do, allowing for the rest to sneak in and take pictures of the plans to burn down the orphanage and gather evidence. They snuck out without a trace and compiled everything into a folder which they then left on a head officers’ desk during the night. In less than 8 hours the culprits were apprehended and the orphanage was saved by the mysterious heroes. Afterwards, Kokichi and Shuichi spent the whole day together cuddled up by the fire with blankets, tea, books, and pillows for his day off. This probably wouldn’t be the first time Kokichi overworked himself, but if that meant they could cuddle by the fire then Shuichi would let it slide...this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you’ve enjoyed reading! Let me know what you thought! ~Snowy


End file.
